Hardback: When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was liberated in 1945, a Jewish-American soldier gave her a banknote on which he had written ‘Good luck and happiness’.
And when her great-grandson, Dov, decided to use social media to track down the family of the GI, 96-year-old Lily found herself making headlines round the world.
Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz she would tell everyone the truth about the camp. Now was her chance.
In Lily’s Promise, she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz in 1944 and her determination to keep her two other sisters safe. She describes the inhumanity of the camp and the small acts of defiance that gave her strength. From there she and her sisters became slave labour in a munitions factory, and then faced a death march that they barely survived.
Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London. It was not easy; the pain of her past was always with her, but this extraordinary woman found the strength to speak out in the hope that such evil would never happen again.
Lily's Promise (2021) is a heart-breaking and unforgettable reminder of both the importance of remembering the Holocaust and the incredible power of hope.
The book is dedicated to the loving memory of Lily's mother, Nina, and her little brother and sister, Bela and Berta, all of whom were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is also dedicated to the many members of her extended family who were killed, and to all those who have no one to remember them. It includes a Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales and is The Sunday Times top 10 bestseller.
About the authors: Lily Ebert lives in London near her large and loving family, which includes thirty-four great-grandchildren. She is a founder member of the Holocaust Survivors Centre and was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust education. Lily's Promise is her powerful memoir.
Dov Forman is Lily’s great-grandson. At the age of sixteen he was separated from her during the Covid pandemic for the first time, and became determined to record her story for posterity.
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